


Notches on the Door Frame

by Kamary



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Character Analysis, Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Monsters are really tall, height
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-10
Updated: 2016-02-10
Packaged: 2018-05-19 12:35:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5967601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kamary/pseuds/Kamary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chara: 4' 11"<br/>Frisk: 5' 2"<br/>Asriel 6' 11"</p>
<p>Between the three of them, they all saw their heights very differently.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Notches on the Door Frame

**Author's Note:**

> When I write Frisk, Chara, and Asriel, I'm always pretty vague specific on heights, so I wanted to write a little mini thing analyzing what their heights meant to them.

Whenever anyone made comments about Chara’s height, they’d just tell them it was because their father, Satan, wanted to keep an eye on them so they had to stay close to the ground. They would then make their creepy face. Most people never mentioned it again.

The few people who continued to comment on it were Asriel and Frisk. Originally, Chara had been the tallest of the three. It was to be expected, since they were also the oldest. But, their height didn’t last. Asriel outgrew them quickly. They were on par with Frisk for a while, but then they stopped growing and Frisk went on.

So they were the smallest, but it wasn’t all bad. What Chara lacked in height, they made up for in style. They had long legs (proportionally) and always looked their best. Despite their height, nobody questioned the fact they were a force to be reckoned with. They were the model of a put together young adult human, and that’s how it had to be. They’d much rather be the model of a put together young monster, but they were dealt the cards they had and nothing would change that.

Maintaining a controlled appearance was very important to Chara. Having control meant nobody could hurt you. They controlled every aspect of their life and kept to patterns. They visited the same store every week, at the same time. They kept precise schedules. Every aspect of their life was tracked. Was it healthy? Probably not, but it kept them feeling safe. Safety was the most important aspect of their new life.

The fact they couldn’t control their height frustrated Chara. They could control everything else. Contacts, diets, make-up. Almost every other aspect of their appearance could be changed, but not their height. They could never let this distress show, though. When Asriel had found out about the more harmful of their habits, he took a month off of princely duties to make sure they were eating right. They couldn’t worry him like that again. Despite their sometimes cold nature, Chara really did care for the kingdom of monsters, and it needed its prince.

Sometimes, though, they were reminded their height wasn’t so bad when they fit perfectly onto Asriel’s lap when they were cuddling on cold nights, or how they were the perfect height to be kisses on the forehead by Frisk.

Chara could bare this uncomfortable body thanks to the two of them.

\---

Frisk supposed they should be happy with the height that they were. In the year 21XX, being under five foot seven was considered to be abnormal. They weren’t so small that it was extremely rare, though. Frisk stood at a decent five foot two inches, three inches taller than Chara and over a foot and a half shorter than Asriel. That was to be expected though. They were only human.

According to doctors, they shouldn’t have expected to grow more than this. When they first reached the surface, Toriel had all her children check out by a doctor. The doctor stated, due to Frisk’ childhood malnutrition, it wasn’t a surprise that they were so small. If anything, they were expected to be smaller, around Chara’s height. But Frisk had flourished in Toriel’s care. They’d actually gotten quite a bit of a belly from her over feeding them, a habit they carried into adulthood.

Frisk really didn’t care what they looked like. Their body was just their body. It was their soul and determination that counted. However, not everyone saw it like that. Their job as ambassador was made harder when everyone claimed they could still mistake them for a child or teenager. It was frustrating, but Frisk knew they’d just find some other excuse if they had been a different height.

There were benefits to being small, like convincing Asriel to pick them up so they could see something that they could actually already see. It was also good to be close to Chara’s height. Even thought they were separated now, Frisk felt they should still be in the same body. Funny how a time period that couldn’t have been more than week felt like their entire lives. But, that was life, and Frisk accepted that.

Despite everything, Frisk thought they were perfect the way they were.

\---

There was a big difference between the way that humans and monsters saw Asriel. Humans saw a massive goatman. A creature to fear, to respect. True, he was almost seven feet tall, and towered over all but the tallest of humans. However, that didn’t change how his people saw him.

Asriel was actually very small for a boss monster. He came up to his mother’s eyes level, which was impressive for a human, but nothing to gasp over for a monster. Even Undyne was taller than him. He was about even with Papyrus. It was just a difference between humans and monsters. Sometimes he was irritated with being considered the king and queen’s runty child, but Asriel knew nobody disrespected him for it.

His horns would never grow in fully, not like his fathers. They were more like that of his mother. He wasn’t so immature for his age because of any health reasons, like Frisk, or because of childhood trauma, like Chara. No, he was small because his parents were getting on in their years. Their souls had paused in feeding magic into him for so long that they struggled to start again. Nobody had been prepared for his return, and they didn’t follow the normal rules of nature. It ended with a somewhat small goat monster and two parents who were old, but not in danger of dying. Normally Asriel would have killed them by his continual growth, but instead they could live together for a good long time.

Every time he looked in the mirror, he was so grateful that he was smaller than his father. He was glad they could survive his aging, even if it was only because of a fluke. He was glad too, that it didn’t drive a further gap between himself and his two best friends. He didn’t have to risk crushing them he snuggled up to them. He even knew when Frisk played the ‘I can’t see, carry me’ trick on him, since the gap between them wasn’t that big. It kept everyone dear to him close, and that was a gift.

Asriel would never see his height as anything but a blessing.


End file.
